The bank confirmed that a "small number" of roles are being made redundant in the private banking business.

Standard Chartered has begun to trim some jobs at its private banking arm in in London and Dubai as part of a wider cutback to the global workforce, a report said. 

According to Bloomberg Law, part of the Bloomberg group of publications, more than 20 people will lose their jobs at the private bank’s wealth management division in the UAE, and 25 roles will go in the UK. The publication, which cited unnamed sources, said that redundant roles will be finalised in October and completed by the end of the year. In total, the private bank employs 1,400 people. 

“The private bank is taking steps to improve productivity and create capacity to grow. As a result, a small number of roles are being made redundant,” a spokesperson for Standard Chartered told this news service. The bank made no further comment, including on the specific numbers of the article. 

As reported at the end of July, Standard Chartered said that its pre-tax profits fell by 40 per cent year-on-year to $733 million. Healthy inflows were more than offset by credit and other impairments that reached $653 million for the quarter, up from $195 million registered a year ago. The UK/Hong Kong-listed bank beat analysts forecasts in spite of the low rates and stories of economic-contractions that are dominating second quarter earnings among the biggest lenders.